Now that the summer is here, it’s a great time to own a pool. If your home in Homestead or South Florida has a pool, though, you have an obligation to make sure that your pool area is safe. It is especially important to keep your pool area safe from children who may be attracted by the pool and may wander onto your property. Even if a child trespasses on your property and is injured in your pool, you may be held liable because as a property owner you are considered to have a special obligation of care to children.
To keep your pool area safe, there are several things you will want to do:
1) Install a fence around the pool area.
The fence should be tall enough and sturdy enough to ensure that no one can easily enter. If you already have a fence, this is a good time to walk around and make sure that it is still structurally sound and is doing good job of keeping intruders out.
2) Install self-locking gate and alarm system to your pool area.
At minimum, you should have a self-locking gate to ensure that if you leave the pool area for any reason the pool area will be secure. An alarm system is a nice added touch that can alert you if anyone enters the pool area.
3) Have a good system for keeping your pool area safe.
If you have visitors over, make sure that the pool area stays supervised at all times if anyone is swimming. If no one will be swimming, keep the pool area locked — especially if some of your guests are children.
Create a list of pool safety rules — such as “no running near the pool” — and post them in the pool area. These can serve as a good reminder for you and your family to stay safe.
4) Install no-slip treads around the pool area.
Make sure that the surfaces around the pool area are not easily slippery. Adding texture or treads can help prevent you from slipping and falling into your Homestead pool yourself and can prevent visitors from slipping and falling into the pool area.
5) Make sure everyone in your family is a good swimmer.
Offer swimming lessons to your children early. Strong swimming skills can help everyone stay safer on the water — both at home and in other bodies of water. Swimming lessons can also teach your children basic water safety tips. Swimming instructors, for example, will usually teach students to avoid diving in areas where they can’t confirm water depth.
Have you been injured while visiting someone else’s pool? Is there a pool defect in your own pool that has caused an injury to you or a family member? You can always contact Flaxman Law Group if you would like to speak to an attorney or legal professional to find out whether you have a claim. Our attorneys have more than 60 years of combined experience and would be happy to meet with you in a free, no obligation consultation to help you explore your legal options.